Roman baths

madison caron & emily wrenn

Roman baths

madison caron & emily wrenn

Baths of Diocletian

Baths of Diocletian largest Thermae built in Rome constructed in the early third century and was estimated to hold 3000 people. Built by Maxentius who had the complex named Therme Diocletiani, after the Diocletian emperor.The bricks of the structure were covered with marble on the inside and marble-appearing stucco on the outside, appearing like the white marble of the Baths of Caracalla. The time built between 298 and 306 AD. Its located in Regione VI Alta Semtia, Rome

(questions # 1,2,3,4,6)

Purpose: to romans bathing was a social event. Large bath houses reflected importance in roman society. More than just getting clean the baths were a place to socialize, gossip, and discuss politics. It was also a fitness and leisure center, consisting of a swimming pool, massage room, meeting halls, libraries, and sporting facilities. The romans baths were made of 3 main complexes differentiating in temperature of water: the frigidarium (cold), the tepidarium (warm), and the caldarium. Some romans even went to the sudatorium which is a sauna used before going to the caldarium.(question 5,7)

They were still somewhat standing after invading goths destroyed the aqueduct the baths were destroyed to ruins. today some remains have been preserved as they were incoeperated into new buildings such as:

The pantheon-esque San Bernardo alle Terme church

Aula Ottagona

Octagonal hall

Santa Maria degli Angeli

Some modernized “roman baths” would be spas or rec-centers or any kind of social meeting place. (question 8,9)

Bibilography Baths of Diocletian

Baths of ancient Rome. Digital image. A View on Cities. A View on Cities, 2015. Web. 6 May 2015.

Baths of Caracalla

This large bathing house was constructed by the son of Emperor Caracalla from A.D. 188-216, to remember all the good deeds his father had done. The red brick building is located in the center of southeastern Rome and could hold thousands of roman citizens at a time. Bath houses were not only used for bathing, they were also used for exercise, leisure, and gossip.

Purpose: These buildings consisted of a cold room, frigidarium, a warm room, tempidarium, and a hot room, calidarium. There we also gardens, statues, libraries, and exercise rooms. Many of the baths are still standing and can be seen in Rome today, yet they do not hold as much beauty as they did thousands of years ago.

Other Roman Baths

Bathing was part of a very important routine in the Roman lifestyle. Wealthy Romans were able to afford baths in their homes, but there were also public bath houses for the middle and lower class of the Roman society. The bath houses were known as a “Thermae”, and had the basic necessities that a rec. center has today. While men were away at work, the women would usually bath during the day, and the men would visit the baths after work.

Inside the Thermae were the actual baths, a series of heated rooms and pools. Many were carefully situated to make the most of the heat of the sun. This system used water, heated in fiery furnaces under the raised floors of the baths. The resulting steam was channeled through special chambers under the floors and in the walls. This could get the floors very hot so that, unless bath floors were very thick, they would be too hot to walk on. This created the bath rooms to be very large in size.